How to keep your TV but upgrade the smarts

There's no need to throw away a perfectly good television just because it's lacking the latest smart TV bells and whistles.

Australians are spoilt for choice when it comes to streaming video to keep us entertained during the lockdown; the bigger challenge can be getting all that great content onto the big screen.

The NVIDIA Shield TV is a small cylinder full of smarts.

Unfortunately, once your Smart TV is two or three years old, it might stop receiving updates for new services. Of course no-one wants to replace their telly as often as they replace their smartphone.

These days most improvements in new TVs are in smart features; the actual picture quality doesn't tend to change from year to year. This is where a new media player or set-top box can make more sense.

Advertisement

The cheapest and easiest way to give an old television a smart overhaul is with Google's $59 Chromecast dongle. It's simple to set up: just plug the Chromecast into a power point and a spare HDMI video port on your television, then follow the onscreen instructions to connect it to your Wi-Fi network. Now you can fling most streaming video from your computer, smartphone or tablet to the television.

If you have a 4K television then spend a bit extra on the $99 Chromecast Ultra. Meanwhile, Amazon still only offers its clunky first-gen Fire TV Stick streaming dongle in Australia, and we're denied the 4K models available in the US.

Loading

One trade-off with the Chromecast is that it doesn't come with a remote control to live on the coffee table; you need to drive everything from your device. This is a problem if not all the youngsters in your home have their own devices, or you don't want them installing Netflix. It becomes a hassle if they need to commandeer one of your gadgets whenever they want to watch television.

If your household needs a remote control to manage streaming then it's hard to go past the $249 NVIDIA Shield TV, especially now it supports 4K resolution, Dolby Atmos sound and Dolby Vision HDR for greater detail in the shadows. This means the sound and picture quality should be on par with any apps built into your television.

[Update: NVIDIA advises most retailers are currently selling the Shield TV for $289.95, and that "this pricing may continue to change according to market conditions."]

The Shield TV runs Google's big-screen friendly Android TV software and has the Google Play app store and talkative Google Assistant built-in. It lets you watch practically all of the streaming services including Netflix, Stan (owned by the publisher of this masthead), Amazon, Disney+, Foxtel, Kayo, Optus Sport, Google Play Movies, Kodi, Plex and all five of Australia's free-to-air catch up services. It also supports Chromecast streaming for those times when you can't install an app on the Shield TV.

As a general rule, new streaming apps are likely to be available in the Android TV app store before they come to your smart TV. You miss out on a free-to-air television tuner, so if you care about such things then consider the Fetch TV Mini.

Loading

The Shield TV's odd-looking cylindrical design is actually handy for tucking it out of the way, relying on a Bluetooth wireless remote which doesn't require line of sight. The remote can also turn your TV on and off, as well as adjust the volume, potentially making it the one remote to rule them all.

All that's really missing from Shield TV is Apple's Apple TV+ streaming video service and support for AirPlay, which is Apple's equivalent of Chromecast streaming. If this sounds like a deal-breaker then lean towards the $249 Apple TV 4K.

Either way, spending less than $300 on a new set-top box every few years makes a lot more sense than buying a whole new television just so you can watch all your favourite shows on the big screen.